The Football Dream
by HarryMotouPotter
Summary: A 16 year old Harry is fed up of the Dursley's neglect, Dumbledore's manipulations, and Voldemort's constant threats against his life, so he and his secret society of friends decide to get away, more specifically…..to the South African Football World Cup! This is the epic tale of how they get there. Obviously some similarities to "Africa United" but not a crossover. Quite AU


AN: Hello everybody, welcome to a new fan fiction called 'The Football Dream', now I know your going to ask 'WHY?!' but hear me out, I found the fact that Harry had so little interest in muggle culture strange, even if he did live with the Dursley's he must have had some sort of hobby growing up or he would have gone insane, so I decided that why couldn't it be football, it would be a popular game in schools and such so it would make sense, of course for this I had to change the year from 1996 to 2009 to make it work but hey, things have to work or the whole story won't make sense. Just for you who came here more for Harry Potter than for football, there will be lots of adventure and also some wizardry in this fanfic so don't judge too quickly. Hope you enjoy this prologue just to set the scene, see you later!

Prologue

Harry stared out of his window in the smallest bedroom of Number for Privet Drive. The night sky illuminated by millions of what seemed like the brightest stars in the galaxy. If you looked close enough you could spot dozens of different constellations, not that Harry's mind was focusing on that at the moment. No, Harry Potter's mind was off in a far away world, a world that was void of the Dursleys, void of Voldemort, void of Dumbledore, and even, when Harry was in one of his more depressed moods, void of the wizarding world altogether.

But it was not to be. So Harry was hoping that the night he'd been waiting for, probably since he was 6, was going to be a success. You may be asking at this point in time, what could be so important that you could wait for 10 years for it? It was only the very thing that had gotten Harry through most of his childhood.

Football.

That's right. Football. Soccer, Fussball, whatever you wanted to call it. Harry was absolutely obsessed with it. Ever since he'd seen England's game vs. Greece where David Beckham had scored that wonder free kick he'd been hooked. He didn't think he was half bad at playing it either. Every chance he'd get he would take Dudley's old football down to the park and practise by himself. Sometimes he would practise for hours, non stop. Of course the Dursley's didn't notice his fascination, what with him being a good-for-nothing freak and all.

He'd always go down the local swimming pool and find whatever change he could under that vending machine. He'd then use that to go and buy his favourite magazine. 'Match Magazine'. This is how he knew so much about football, reading the magazing cover to cover, absorbing all the information like a sponge. He'd learned every single player in the Premier League's name because they would have scored at least once and would be in the match facts or they would be recommended in the fantasy footy team that people had on computers. He'd have loved to have played it but he had only gotten an hour a week on the computer in the school library, and that time was spent looking up everything to do with football that he could. This helped further his football knowledge to the other best leagues in the world. For instance he now knew that the best player in the world was Lionel Messi, and that the team he played for, Barcelona, was the best team in the world. That was who he supported. Not because they were the best, but because they were the first team which he'd managed to get a shirt from. Sure it was 5 times too big for him, with it being Dudley's old one which he'd worn once then lost for Harry to find, but it could be his and he loved it. It was the 2004 model, nothing flashy but nice, with Ronaldiniho on the back. He was Harry's favourite player.

He'd first seen Ronaldinho play back when he'd gotten the shirt, he'd been interested in who the player's name was that was on the back of his shirt, and lo and behold during his time on the computer he'd found a news bulletin stating that the very same player had just won World Player of the Year. That had interested him more, and, using Youtube for guidance, he'd set out to watch every video he could find on Ronaldinho. He was amazing. The way what he did just looked so effortless, so fluid and, and, just beautiful. Harry must have practised every trick he'd seen Ronaldinho do thousands of times until he'd gotten them down to a tee. It had taken time, but he was confident in a game that he could do them. Harry wished he could have played a real game, due to Dudley and his merry band of idiots he would never get to join the football team because no one would want him there, just in case Dudley turned his anger on them. But there were a few.

Oh those few.

He'd made everyone believe that he didn't have any friends before coming to Hogwarts, why, uhhh, that reason he still hadn't figured out yet, even 6 years later. He, in fact, did have a small group of friends. Friends with a common interest. There were only 4 of them, but they were the best friends he'd had before Hogwarts. Their names were Ryan, Oliver, Matt, Dan and Sam.

Ryan was about Harry's height, maybe a bit taller, with short brown hair, brown eyes and lots of freckles on his face. He was probably one of the quietest in the group but definitely the most football mad. He played up front most of the time but could also drop back into centre attacking midfield.

Oliver was the tallest of the group and had blond hair, not Malfoy blond but darkish blond, and blue eyes, he looked like an example of what the Nazi psychopath Adolf Hitler would have called the 'Master Race'. His stature was rather like Ron's, Harry supposed, tall and gangly. He also had the same sense of humour that Ron did, always managing to put a smile on Harry's face. He played in the goalkeeper position for his club, and he was pretty good at it too.

Matt was shorter than Harry, Ryan and Ollie, but only by an inch or so. He had ginger hair, not Weasley red but a fairer shade. He, like Ryan, had a bunch of freckles on his face and brown eyes as well. Matt was probably the best at football, behind Harry, as he'd played in one of the best teams in the area and almost always scored. Being a striker and all.

Dan had the most interesting hairstyle of the lot, his was spiked up, the spikes went straight up and consisted of all of his hair, it was a very light shade of blond. He was the shortest of the lot of us and had blue eyes which weren't quite as bright as Ollie's, but light nonetheless. He played on the wings mostly but could also play striker.

Last came Sam, Harry would say that Sam was his best friend in the muggle world. Not only did they both like football, but, as Harry found out, they both had similar stories. Parents dying at a young age, going to live with your Aunt, Uncle and Cousin. The only difference was that Sam liked his relatives and they liked him in return, when he'd first met Sam he couldn't help but feel a bit jealous of him, but that thought was quashed immediately when they started talking. Sam had short, dark brown hair, freckles on his face, although they only covered his cheeks, and bright blue eyes which almost always had a happy glint in them. He was a pretty good footballer in his own right, playing at Left Back for his club, even going so far as to have a trial for the academy of a local club, he didn't get in, but that didn't stop him, to him all that mattered was having fun. Harry was inspired by that attitude. There was also the fact that Sam was the only one who knew the extent to which the situation at the Dursley's was, he had pleaded with Harry, the day he'd told him, to go to child services or the police or something. But after Harry had said that it would do no good the first time, he'd just shook his head sadly and left it alone. Harry was grateful for this.

Well, now that you know the people, you get to know the plan. The plan that this secret, secret because they couldn't have Dudley or his friends finding out, group had concocted 7 years ago when Harry had been able to sneak out all night for a sleepover at Sam's house. The plan which would make Harry's dream of seeing an international football match a reality.

They were going to the South African World Cup.

This was what Harry was so excited for. Tonight, on the 30th August 2009, he and his friends would be leaving, starting on an epic journey to the first ever African World Cup. They had it all mapped out, literally. The step by step trip had been planned every time possible since that night 7 years ago. It had helped when they got over the problem of money, Harry had more than enough money to cover the expenses, and telling them that it was his inheritance was brilliant, it was not a lie, but it wasn't the whole truth either. Harry was super excited, he felt like a kid again, which he supposed he was as he'd never had anything like this to be excited about before. The plan was simple, they were going to sneak onto a bus, get to Heathrow, board a plane to South Africa and live in luxury in some hotel that Harry had booked for a year. Harry had also wanted some time off from Hogwarts, he would invite Sirius but he kind of wanted it to just be the 6 of them.

Back to the present Harry continued looking out down the street for any sign of the guys. They were meant to be coming at around midnight. Then he saw them, the five of them sneaking their way down Privet Drive, it was quite comical too, Harry almost laughed out loud when Ollie tripped over a tree route and was sent tumbling to the floor, but he caught himself, lest the Dursley's here him.

When they got to a point below his window where they could catch him if he fell climbing out, he opened the window carefully and climbed out with his suitcase pack with everything he'd need, he'd told Hedwig to go and wait for them at Heathrow, she was a smart owl, she'd know where it was. As soon as he was safely on the ground he looked around at his companions. They were all wearing the shirt of their favourite team, Matt - Real Madrid (Ugghh), Dan - Chelsea, Ryan - Arsenal, Ollie - Manchester City and Sam - Liverpool. They were all grinning at him, he grinned back. Ollie was the first one to break the silence.

"Well, are we gonna stand here grinning like loons until the World Cup is over, or are we gonna get on that plane?" he said. The others nodded in agreement and so they took off to the nearest bus station. There it was that they realised the first, and not the last, of the flaws in their plan.

"Uhh, guys?" Harry asked carefully. The others hummed their reply, blissfully unaware of the growing problem that faced them early on in their adventure.

"Do buses run at 12 o'clock in the morning?" Harry asked. The others blinked, looked at him, then at each other, then at him again. They all blanched.

"Better start walking" Sam quipped. The others groaned. This did not bode well for the rest of their trip.

AN: Hey again guys, hope you enjoyed th prologue for this, I quite enjoyed writing it because I have a big interest in football as well as Harry Potter so combining them is fun for me, anyway please give this a review and suggest any adventures that you think Harry should have on this epic journey (*hint* spoiler *hint*) thanks for reading, see you next time! BYE


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